“That was different,” said Ari. “Look, I’ll leave the short sword up here with you, but Eva and I should handle the spire. We’ve been down there before. We’ll be able to move faster without you.”
He frowned a little as he saw Kerys’ hurt reaction, but there was no time for him to soothe her feelings. Eva was already heading downstairs, and Ari hurried after her. He pulled on his sword scabbard and the pack, and then the two of them made their way outside.
The storm clouds were already close enough to occlude the morning sun on the horizon. Eva had suggested that they only had a few hours before the storm hit, but he now wondered if that had been a generous estimate.
“I think the wisest course of action would be for us to focus on the chamber with the traps,” said Eva. “Perhaps we can recover the essence we need without you having to attempt the fight against the purple mesmer a second time.”
“I’m not quite as optimistic as you are about that, but your reasoning is sound,” said Ari.
“Are you going to use your Ring of Insight again?” asked Eva.
Ari glanced down at the unassuming metal ring around his right index finger.
“Not yet,” he said. “Judging from how much essence it used when I triggered its enchantment last night, I’ll only get about two uses per day. Maybe three if I space them out widely enough.”
“Is its aid enough for you to rely on?” asked Eva. “The revelation it offered to you last night seemed a little vague and vacuous.”
“It’ll have to be enough,” said Ari. “Today is going to be our last day on the spire, one way or another. We’re running out of time.”
He hated the sense of finality left in the silence followed in the wake of his words. Eva climbed into the hatch and down the ladder quickly, and Ari followed right behind her. They ran through the sloping hallway, only slowing when they reached the main chamber, which had enough bones scattered across the floor to make speeding through it somewhat treacherous.
“Are you alright, milord?” asked Eva. “You seem distant this morning.”
“I’m fine,” he said. “A little tense, though that’s to be expected, given our circumstances.”
He briefly considered coming clean with Eva about what the ring had told him about his impending death before deciding against it. The image of her sad face came to mind, the way she’d looked when he’d finally woken up after the fight with the purple mesmer. She’d blamed herself for their loss in that fight, and it would only hurt her to admit that the blow he’d taken had irreversibly shortened his lifespan.
“You can be honest with me,” said Eva. “What is it?”
“I said it was nothing,” snapped Ari. “Dormiar’s blood, you’re worse than Kerys sometimes.”
A wavering flash of hurt passed over Eva’s expression. Ari scowled and brought his hand to his forehead as he considered the thoughtlessness of his words.
“Sorry,” said Ari. “We just don’t have time for this today. I promise I’ll explain later, but right now, we have a date with a dozen flame traps.”
It was actually closer to two dozen, Ari realized as they approached the doorway leading to the room with the green mesmer. The gouts of flame were still bursting forth from the walls, ceiling, and floor, and he wondered if they’d been continuing at full strength since he’d originally triggered them.
The spherical green mesmer continued to meander along the far wall, either not noticing their presence or not caring enough to reveal itself.
“First off,” said Ari. “I think it would be best for you to be in sword form for this, so we can both get to the other edge of the room without having to each make the trip.”
“I agree.” Eva flashed with light, and Ari quickly deposited Azurelight into its scabbard.
“Now,” said Ari. “Let’s see what insights my newest enchanted item has to offer.”
He reached out to the ring with his will, and the revelation came in a sudden, instantaneous rush. He felt humbled by the crystal clearness in which the ring conveyed its truth, as though the insight gained through it should have been obvious to him from the very beginning.
“The flames trigger in a repeating pattern,” said Ari. “It’s just a really long one. We wouldn’t have ever been able to notice it without watching extremely carefully.”
“Is it a pattern that you can exploit to make it past the traps?” asked Eva.
“There’s only one way to find out,” said Ari.
He leaned against the chamber’s wall and waited, watching the flames closely and only looking away when their intensity began to hurt his eyes. Ten minutes later, he had the pattern essentially figured out, and had already planned a route out that would take him through safely.
As Ari approached the edge of the traps, he quickly discovered that there was only so much the Ring of Insight could do for him. The flames were still hot enough to make sweat drip from his forehead and inner arms.
Several of the transitions he’d have to make through the treacherous fire would require him to move as fast he was able and position himself in ways that could lead to a crispy end if he was off by even just a couple of inches.
He marshalled his fears and pushed forward as the pattern of the traps began again from the beginning. The first few were deceptively easy to dodge past, and instead of continuing forward along the obvious route, he cut to the side.
The flames in front of him burst out on diagonals, forming an X that cut off his way forward. Ari had no choice but to lean sideways at an odd angle and fling himself through next to the edge of the wall. His pant leg was smoldering as he stood up, and he had to keep moving to stay ahead of the pattern as he patted it out.
The next three flame jets forced him to jump up and then immediately drop down, crawl forward, and roll to the side. Ari hadn’t taken the effect of the pack and greatsword on his back into his planning, and he had to throw the roll with more force than he was comfortable with.
He stood up in a tiny section in the middle of the floor no more than four feet across in diameter where none of the flames could reach and took a slow breath. His tunic was soaked in sweat, and the flames were so bright that it was hard to see much beyond the afterimages they left against his eyes.”
“Lord Stoneblood?” said Eva. “Are you alright?”
“Shh,” said Ari. “I need to time this perfectly.”
He was counting in his head, knowing that his opening to make it past the last section of flames was so brief as to be nearly impossible if he wasn’t perfect. He would only get one chance at it. There was no turning back, and knowing the simple truth of that gave him an odd sort of resolve.
Ari crouched low and hurled himself forward an instant before the two flame gouts in front of him flicked off. He dove past them, pulling his legs up to his chest in time to keep from having his legs incinerated as the flames reignited.
His landing wasn’t graceful, but it didn’t have to be. He’d made it across to the other side. He pulled himself to his knees and started laughing, struck by the insane reality of what he’d just done.
The green mesmer manifested as Ari drew closer to it, but the ghostly man who stood in place of the glowing sphere paid little attention to him. He was a short, bald Saidican, and he held an ethereal piece of chalk in one hand and a thick notebook in the other.
“That is the chest, over to the left,” said Eva.
“Hold on,” he said. “I want to see if this guy can help us at all.”
The green mesmer finally turned to look at Ari, glancing him over before saying something in Saidios that he couldn’t understand.
“Do you speak my language?” asked Ari. “Subvios, or the lower tongue, as your people sometimes call it?”
The green mesmer didn’t answer him, which was an answer in itself. Ari scowled and pulled the Azurelight out of its scabbard. It flashed with light, and Eva appeared in its place. She nodded to him and then took a step toward the mesmer, asking him a question in Saidios.
The mesmer gave her a rapid, somewhat annoyed-sounding answer.
“He says he is here to study the spire,” said Eva.
“Has he figured anything out that’s helpful to us?” asked Ari.
Eva spoke to the mesmer again in another quick exchange.
“He says the spire isn’t a fort, but a… vessel?” said Eva, her voice unsure. “He keeps repeating that the secrets hidden below could either save the realm or destroy it.”
“Is that your interpretation, or a literal translation?” asked Ari.
“He is a raving lunatic, as far as I can tell,” said Eva. “Now he is repeating that we should not trust the new moon.”
“Ask him if it’s related to the Weatherblight,” said Ari. “The Stray, the second moon, Deepwater Spire. See if he knows anything about how it all fits together.”
Eva frowned a little, but she relayed the question. The green mesmer’s expression immediately shifted upon hearing her words, and the old madman shook his head several times back and forth before returning to his spherical form.
“Mud and blood,” he muttered. “There’s more here. I can feel it.”
If he hadn’t been intending to save the second usage of his Ring of Insight for fighting the purple mesmer, Ari would have attempted to ask it about what it could piece together from what the mesmer had just explained. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time for him to wait for his enchanted ring to recharge sufficiently to do both.
He made his way over to the chest and opened it, breathing a sigh of relief as he spotted the second key inside, along with an enchanted scroll. He tucked the key into his pack alongside the one he’d gotten from the pink mesmer’s room and showed the scroll to Eva.
“Recognize this rune pattern, by chance?” he asked.
Eva frowned and shook her head. “Kerys was better at inferring meaning from the patterns. I was basically just helping her translate specific words.”
“Damn,” said Ari. “Maybe I should have brought her along after all.”
He tried to get the glowing green sphere to manifest again, but the mesmer silently refused his entreaties. He passed the scroll to Eva with his brow furrowed.
“Just give me your best guess,” said Ari. “Anything you can tell me. I’m going to have to fight the purple mesmer, given how bare this room was of loot. This scroll might mean the difference between winning and losing.”
Between life and death, really. He was afraid that if he voiced the fight in such terms, Eva would notice that something was going on with him.
“It seems like some type of offensive magic,” said Eva, with a touch of uncertainty. “But it is not elemental magic. The rune patterns for the elements are very bold and recognizable, and this is not one of them.”
“That’s enough for me to go on,” said Ari. “I’m glad it’s offensive magic. It would be far harder to use a defensive spell properly without knowing what exactly what it does.”
“It would still be incredibly reckless to attempt to use it,” said Eva.
“Yeah, well, the time for caution is a little past us,” said Ari. “We have to beat the storm.”
CHAPTER 14
Eva shifted back into her sword form, and Ari very carefully made his way back through the flame traps, breathing a sigh of relief at how much easier it was headed back than it had been going through. He broke into a run as soon as he was clear of them, figuring that he was already as sweaty as he could possibly get.
He only slowed to a stop as he passed through the doorway into the familiar, spartan chamber of the purple mesmer. The mesmer was already manifested, sitting at the same large instrument he’d been in front of when Ari had last confronted him.
He felt a heavy sense of uncertainty and dread as he looked at an opponent who’d already soundly defeated him once. This time, he couldn’t risk taking a single hit.
The margin for error was slim enough to make the first challenge about Ari getting past his own doubt rather than anything involving the actual fight. He resisted the urge to use the Ring of Insight preemptively, knowing that it would be better suited for later in the duel, in case he ran into anything unexpected.
“Eva,” he said, gripping the hilt of the greatsword. “I need you to teach me how to say something in Saidios.”
“I sincerely doubt this mesmer will be open to a civil discussion,” said Eva.
“That wasn’t what I had in mind,” said Ari. “What’s the crudest insult you can think of in your people’s language?”
“Really, milord?” said Eva, her tone clearly exasperated even through the bond.
“Trust me,” he said. “This will help. If nothing else, it will make the fight a little more interesting.”
Eva was silent for a couple of seconds.
“Tel liandros aki mon fukkias,” said Eva.
“Tel liandros aki mon fukkias,” Ari repeated in a low voice. “What does it mean?”
“It is not important,” said Eva.
“Come on, tell me!” said Ari. “I need to know what tone of voice to deliver it in.”
“It means ‘you obviously have raped your grandmother,’” said Eva.
“Dormiar’s blood,” said Ari. “That’s disgusting.”
“You asked for the crudest insult I could think of,” said Eva.
Ari got the sense that she was currently doing whatever the equivalent of blushing was in her sword construct form.
“How is it that you even remember something like that, given your amnesia?”
He asked the question without thinking, and instantly wished that he could take it back.
“It speaks to the kind of person I once was, I think,” said Eva. “I am sorry I cannot offer you a better answer.”
“It’s fine,” he said. “And who you might have been has nothing to do with who you are now.”
He drew Azurelight and held it to the side. The sound of the metal leaving the scabbard was enough to draw the mesmer’s attention, even though it wasn’t as loud as Ari’s speech had been. He waited until the ethereal warrior had turned to make eye contact with him before delivering his newly learned insult.
“Tel liandros… uh…” He winced. “What was it again?”
Eva repeated the phrase to him through the bond, but the mesmer was already in motion. He launched himself down to the room’s main floor, swinging his huge mace up into an offensive stance. Ari kept the tip of his greatsword leveled at his opponent’s chest, slowly circling, waiting for the ghost to make the first move.
“Aki mon fukkias,” said Ari, as Eva repeated the phrase for him once more through the bond. “That was the last of it. Tel liandros aki mon fukkias, you purple bastard.”
The mesmer warrior’s expression hardened, and he let out a snarl as he rushed forward to attack with his mace. Ari dodged and then ducked, anticipating the same pattern of attack from their last battle.
His evasion gave him a split-second opening, during which he managed to score a glancing blow. The hit felt like swinging through thin air to Ari, but the mesmer’s heavy armor flashed at the point of impact, and he noticed a visible crack forming in the metal.
The ghostly warrior let out a furious roar and began swinging his mace in wild, unpredictable arcs. Ari backed away, making as much space as he could without putting his back to the wall. He was considering whether it was time to consult the Ring of Insight or attempt a sneak attack with his mysterious scroll when the mesmer lifted an arm in his direction.
Light flashed within the mesmer warrior’s palm, and an ice spike burst forth. It was all Ari could do to throw himself out of the way. The ice spike missed him, but it shattered as it impacted the far wall, and a piece of its shrapnel caught Ari in the shoulder.
Almost as though on cue, blood began leaking from Ari’s nose. He let go of Azurelight to wipe at it with his fingers, feeling more annoyed at the inconvenience than anything, though there was a touch of faint dizziness that came along with it.
“You need to be more careful,�
�� said Eva. “This is similar to how the fight went before. It is dangerous to your health to let a mesmer score any kind of hit on you.”
Ari doubted she knew the full extent of the truth of her words. He tried not to think about how much the contact he’d just had with the shrapnel might affect his already grossly diminished lifespan.
The mesmer was rushing toward him again, mace lifted high above his head. Again, Ari recognized the move he was going for. He feinted to the side to get the ghost to commit to a downward swing before spinning his greatsword in a whirlwind slash.
Ari’s weapon didn’t bounce off the mesmer’s corporeal form, and because of that, he felt obliged to continue spinning, swinging Azurelight through the ghost’s armor twice in a row. He backed away, feeling his disorientation from the movement compounded by his weakened state.
The mesmer fell down to one knee, holding his armor at the points where Ari’s sword had bitten through. Ari thought the fight was over, or at least, close to being so, up until the ghost shook his shoulders and allowed all of his armor to fall free.
The ghost was shirtless underneath and surprisingly well-sculpted. More importantly, he was basically uninjured, and now uninhibited by the weight of his metal plate mail.
“Mel liandros aki mon fukkias?” asked the mesmer. “Se, fukkias aki corpus vu undal.”
“He just taunted you,” said Eva. “What he said was—”
“I’m good with not knowing, thanks,” said Ari.
The mesmer warrior stomped his foot, and light roved over his entire body for an instant. It was a spell, and one that Ari had seen before, albeit not in person. Lord Mythril’s friend Diya had used a mystica that allowed him to buff various physical attributes with magic, making him an extremely dangerous opponent.
Ari was considering how to approach the mesmer and what the buff he’d used might have done when the ghost shot to the side, moving fast enough to blur his form. It was all Ari could do to hold his sword at the ready and try to track his opponent’s path through the room.
Laughter echoed off the walls of the chamber as the mesmer celebrated his newfound advantage. Ari swore under his breath, knowing that his odds for victory had just taken a nose dive. The mesmer only needed to score a single hit on him, not even a significant one, and the fight would be over.
Vision Voyage (The Weatherblight Saga Book 2) Page 8
